t this writing, the Yankees are
up two games to none in the World Series and a new Mr. October is about to
be crowned. Will it be Tony Gwynn, David Wells or another one of the
Yankee or Padre sluggers?
According to the World Series simulation I did, David Wells of the
Yankees will be the 1998 series MVP. And with it being the middle of
October it is only fitting that we clean up some loose ends as far as PC
baseball games are concerned. If you enjoy baseball, chances are you might
have already played this year's version of Triple Play. If you
haven't what are you waiting for?
I have played the heck out of Triple Play 99 from EA Sports. I
used it extensively for the World Series simulation and pitted the Padres
against the Yankees. Then I played a partial season and got to game 45 with
my favorite team--the Toronto Blue Jays.
As
usual it has some bugs, but overall it is a very solid baseball
simulation.
This game has significant improvements over last year's version. The
artificial intelligence of the players on both the base paths and on
defense has been addressed and improved. At times the computerized
baserunners get a little out of position and take some unnecessary
chances, and as a result can get picked off unnecessarily. But during my
sixty plus games I played, it only happened 19 times (yes I did count). I
kept score on all of the little glitches that took place when I played the
game.
In terms of gameplay, the career mode and the full-league draft modes
are welcome surprises and take this game to a new level in terms of
replayability.
Of course the game has the usual Homerun Derby, Play-off, Tournament
and Season modes where you can play a 15, 30, 60 or 162 game schedule. You
can also save partial games or seasons, should you get called out of your
gaming bullpen to do some chores or take care of some unfinished business.
There are also four difficulty levels to choose from, with a number of
selectable settings, like computer assisted fielding. The new difficulty
levels make for a nice touch--with the highest difficulty setting being
really tough, not semi-tough as in years past.
The
best feature of Triple Play '99 is the full-league draft that
allows you to dump all of the Major League Players into the pool and build
a team from the ground up. Triple Play '99 has a "trade point" cap
on each team during the draft. Each team has 1875 points to spend, and
each player is work a certain number of points. You can't just load up on
the best players as you will quickly run out of points and won't be able
to field a team. You also have 300 trade points in which to make trades,
so you have to monitor your points.
"Oyster Pudding," A Pearl of a Pudding--is one of the many sayings that
Buck Martinez and Jim Hughson have as they do the play by play. This game
has the best play-by-play of any game I have played this year. The chatter
is smooth as peanut butter and the announcers don't get cut off in
mid-sentence like they do in some of the other recent EA Sports games.
The frame rate is very good and turning the double play is a joy to
watch. The ball movement from the outfielders to the infielders is very
smooth and the graphics with or without 3D support are very well done.
A couple aggrivation though--the one problem I had was getting my
baserunner to advance. This cost me a few runs from time to time and
plenty of frustration. I was executing the right moves on my keyboard, but
the runners seemed as though they were glued to the bag they were on.
Often times their reactions were a step slow when I wanted them to move to
the next base, and that step cost me an out. This is something that I am
sure Chuck Osieja, Mark Dobratz and Steven Rechtshaffner and the other EA
Sports baseball heavy hitters will address next year.
The boys took a few hits on the PlayStation version of this year's game
for many of the same reasons I have outlined in this review. But the PC
version really rocks in more ways than one.
The graphics have always been a mainstay of the Triple Play
franchise and the graphics in the PC version of the game aren't any
different. The game looks beautiful, maybe except for the elf-like shoes
of the players. But I guess that is the trade-off for beautiful looking 3D
players, pointy shoes.
I also noticed this year that the boys have added some new player
animations. They have refined the turn of the double play and the flip
from the pitcher to the first baseman. As well some new off-balance throw
animations really make the game feel as close to the real game as I have
ever seen.
Several
new camera angles were added this year, some of which come into play
automatically, like when you try to pick off a runner, or pick up a bunt
and try to make the play at first base.
That is the good stuff. The bad stuff--a few bugs that had me wanting
to go and buy a can of Raid--included what I called the "Happy Wanderer"
bug. This happened when my guy made it to second safely. It seemed as
though he wasn't content with second and would automatically wander off of
the bag and of course he would bet picked off. Needless outs happened on
both sides of the ball, with me and with the computer controlled team.
That the other guy is just as vulnerable was of little consolation to me.
As this is one bug that should have been caught and fixed.
The only other major problem came with the official scorer. Man that
guy was harsh. He would give errors on sure fire base hits and often times
to players that weren't even close to the ball.
Despite the bugs Triple Play '99 is an excellent baseball
simulation. It is a major improvement over last years game and I can't
wait to play next year's version.
Now it's time for me to go and watch game three of the Padres and the
Yankees. I am cheering for the Yankees--sorry Chuck.
System
Requirements:
|
| Minimum
Note: they were a little--uh--optimistic about the minimum
requirements. We definitely say go with the Recommended specs.
Windows 95
90 MHz or faster, 16 MB RAM
4X CD-ROM drive
1
MB PCI video card with Direct Draw
20 MB free hard disk space
plus space for save games (additional space required for DirectX 5
installation)
Sound Card with DirectSound support, keyboard and
mouse.
Recommended
166 MHz Pentium processor or faster
32 MB RAM
8x or
faster CD-ROM drive using 32-bit Windows 95 CD-ROM driver
100 MB
free hard disk space plus space for saved games (additional space
required for DirectX 5 installation)
DirectX 5 compatible sound
card with DirectSound support
Supported 3-D graphics accelerator
(3Dfx Voodoo Graphic and/or Voodoo Rush chipset with 2.43 runtime
drivers )
Gravis GamePad Pro
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